Last Updated: August 07, 2023, 12:29 IST
While most opposition leaders such as Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar have said the question of ‘who will be the PM candidate’ will be addressed after the elections, Congress leaders do see Rahul Gandhi firmly in that role. (File Photo/PTI)
The challenges for opposition unity could escalate over the Prime Ministerial contender with the Congress seeing Rahul Gandhi’s reinstatement as a shot in the arm for the party to take the lead
Rahul Gandhi is back in Parliament as a Member of Parliament (MP) from Wayanad and the Congress has a spring back in its step with celebrations and ladoos ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha Elections next year.
Ironically, BJP may not be so unhappy with this development as it could re-employ its tried and tested formula from the 2014 and 2019 elections to attack Rahul Gandhi and cash in on his utterances. In fact, the challenges for opposition unity could escalate over the Prime Ministerial contender with the Congress seeing Rahul Gandhi’s reinstatement as a shot in the arm for the party to take the lead.
While most opposition leaders such as Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar have so far said the question of ‘who will be the PM candidate’ will be addressed after the elections, Congress leaders do see Rahul firmly in that role.
The Congress has accused the BJP of orchestrating the two-year sentence given to Rahul in a defamation case filed by a BJP leader, that led to his disqualification from Parliament and raising the threat that he may not be able to contest the Lok Sabha elections next year. However, senior BJP leaders privately admit that having Rahul as the lead player in the opposition camp suits the ruling party as he remains their “big asset” if the fight is pitched between him and Narendra Modi. The 2014 elections saw the ‘Modi wave’ sweeping the nation with Rahul’s challenge being blown away due to a series of corruption scams and the country’s growing disenchantment with dynasty politics led by the Gandhi family.
The 2019 elections saw Modi demolishing Rahul’s campaign of corruption against him, specifically the ‘Rafale scam’, and turning around ‘chowkidaar chor hai’ slogan of Rahul to ‘main bhi chowkidaar’ slogan by the BJP.
The year was an even bigger victory for Modi with more Lok Sabha seats, showing that in a direct Rahul versus Modi fight, the former had to eat humble pie.
Come 2024, Modi is again pitching the election on his strong image and development plank, and warning voters of the instability that coalition governments can bring like the one being promised by the INDIA alliance. He is also reminding voters of the ‘corruption’ and ‘dynastic politics’ history of the opposition which the voters have earlier rejected in 2014 and 2019.
In short, the BJP won’t mind a ‘Rahul versus Modi’ fight again in 2024. In fact, it sees the same as a sure-shot recipe for Modi’s third win. The challenge in the INDIA camp is to keep its focus on sorting the complex seat-sharing formula that it is attempting across states, rather than the Congress wishing to play ‘big brother’ now and project Rahul as the default PM candidate choice.
With parties such as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) having already said their chiefs, Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal, are also contenders, the fight over the issue could escalate in the coming months. Congress would do best to what Rahul had said in the UK this March on the PM question – “That’s not even up for discussion, that’s a distraction and I don’t want to get into it.”
